Parenthood
by Sorceress Myst
Summary: Maria was only 12 years old when she first met Cliff and Mirage so that must mean they had to pick up where Richard and Jessie Traydor left off and raise her, right? A CliffxMirage oneshot about their joys and pains of parenthood.


Hey everyone! I'm just taking a quick break from the Alnel coupling for just a moment to focus on my second favorite couple Cliff and Mirage! This is just a series of events that takes place after they rescued Maria seven years before the game to a point after Maria becomes the leader of Quark. Warning: Everyone is probably a little OOC, but hopefully not too much. I still do not own SO3 or any of its characters, but I do own Myrcella and the city of Daucon. …No, really I do! They're both in my novel 'To Follow in His Footsteps' on Fictionpress. But anyway, you're not here to read my ramblings, so without further ado…

Parenthood

By: Sorceress Myst

"I suppose we should just let her stay with us, I mean, it's not like she has anywhere to go anymore," Cliff explained as he walked down the halls of the Diplo with Mirage, "You said yourself that all of her known relatives in the Federation's database are no longer alive."

"Yes, but Maria is still a little too young to take care of herself so that would mean we would have to raise her," Mirage warned before Cliff faced her with a small grin.

"We? I take it that you mean you're gonna help out?"

"Well, no offense, but even if you are the leader of Quark, I can't really imagine you being able to handle all the problems of raising a child."

"What's so hard about that?" he wondered with a shrug, "All you have to do is feed them, protect them, and show them how to fend for themselves. Simple."

Mirage only raised an eyebrow as she glanced at him, "Simple? What if Maria has a problem that you can't handle?"

"Then I'll send her to you. Come on Mirage, parenthood can't be as hard as you're makin' it out to be."

"…If you think we can pull it off …then I will help," she sighed. Cliff rewarded her with a smile as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Atta girl."

(Three Months Later)

Maria had joined Quark and was seemingly happy under Cliff and Mirage's care. She was a brave girl. She didn't cry at all despite the fact that she had lost her parents at a young age. She once told them that her late mother said that she had to survive and that was what kept her going. If Cliff and Mirage hadn't known any better, then they could have sworn Maria was a Klausian child. Maria soon became an active member of the crew after Mirage taught her all she needed to know about the Diplo's computers. Cliff did his fair share of work by taking her to different planets and taught her about the different cultures, religions, and, of course, the many flaws of the Federation government. Though during the Federation talks, Mirage had to constantly cut him off his 'lectures' before he turned Maria into an anti-Federation rebel because he tended to go a little overboard on the subject.

It had only been three months since they rescued Maria, but it almost felt like she had been on the Diplo for years. Today, was a slow day as the Diplo orbited around a planet that was not apart of the Pangalactic Federation. Cliff was on the bridge going over some reports when Mirage approached him.

"Cliff?" He looked up from his work at the sound of her voice. She looked concerned over something.

"Yeah?" he answered as he put down the small hand held computer.

"Maria seems to be feeling a little depressed. She must be thinking about her family. Maybe we should spend time with her to cheer her up."

"Depressed, huh? Any suggestions?" Cliff stood up and followed Mirage to one of the computer panels when she beckoned him over. She pulled up a map of the planet they were orbiting and pointed to a spot where a large number of individuals were gathering.

"I did some research and found that there is an amusement park open in the city of Daucon. I'm sure that one visit may cheer her up," she explained while pictures of the amusement park popped up in front of the map.

"There are no upcoming missions and it seems that the Federation has no interest in this planet," Cliff said as he crossed his arms and then grinned, "I see no reason why we can't stop by for a little fun."

Mirage let out a smile of her own before he studied the screen.

"Hey, wait…Isn't this the same park you wanted to go to many years ago?" he inquired with a sly glance at her direction.

She looked away while muttering, "As I recall, it was _you_ who wanted to go, but we were too busy."

"Oh yeah, now I remember," he replied as he scratched the back of his head, "Okay then, go get the Eagle warmed up and I'll go get Maria."

"Roger."

Once Mirage left the bridge, Cliff turned to the front and faced the newest member of the crew, "Marietta, watch the ship while we're gone."

"Y-yes sir!" she stammered as she stood up and bowed.

"Hey, lighten up. This isn't the military," he chuckled as he left. He cheerfully walked down to the living quarters, waving to everyone in sight until he reached Maria's room. He knocked on the door and heard a surprised "Come in." before it hissed open.

Maria was hanging upside down off of her bed slightly when he entered and quickly moved to sit up when she realized who was at the door, "Hello Cliff. Is there something wrong?"

"Hey kiddo, me an' Mirage got a surprise for you," he said as he approached her bed. Her young face lightened up instantly.

"Really? What is it?"

"Come with me to the Eagle and I'll show you," Cliff chuckled as he headed out the door. Maria jumped up and ran to him. She grabbed his hand and almost dragged him to the transporters. Although her enthusiasm to reach the Eagle at breakneck speed was amusing, he was unaccustomed to somebody holding his hand and felt a little uncomfortable, especially since he had to bend down to her level because of her height.

The planet had a strict no transporting policy, which is why they had to travel to Daucon in the small ship. When they arrived, Cliff volunteered to purchase the tickets while the two girls waited on the nearby benches. According to the inhabitants, Daucon was referred to as the city of half-bloods because its citizens were hybrids of two different races. Most of the 'half-bloods' were really Lycanthropes while the rest were just humanoids. The lines to the ticket booth were surprisingly short considering the great ratings the amusement park received from the critics.

Within the booth was a young humanoid girl with long auburn hair that covered half of her face and slightly pointed elf ears. She had an electric nametag that flashed her name, Myrcella, in every known language, "Hello, sir, welcome to the Dauconese amusement park."

"Eh…what's the age limit for children's tickets?" he inquired as he pulled out his wallet.

"12 and under, sir," she replied in a friendly tone.

"Perfect! I need tickets for two adults and one child."

"That will be …3600 Fol please."

Cliff raised his eyebrow slightly, "That's an awfully high price."

"I know…" she muttered apologetically, "The Federation's war with Aldian is finally staring to take its toll on us and we've been receiving fewer visitors. It won't be long until we close down permanently."

"Oh, I see…" He glanced down when he felt someone tugging at his pants.

"Cliff, can I get a balloon?" Maria asked sweetly as she looked up at him with puppy dog eyes, "Please?"

He wondered why she didn't ask Mirage. He turned to Mirage and found her staring back at them with a confused look on her face, meaning that Maria just ran off suddenly. Why was she asking him?

"Eh, sure," he replied hesitantly before Maria cheered and ran off to the nearest balloon vendor. Myrcella chuckled.

"Is she your daughter?" she wondered as she watched the young girl run back to Mirage with her prize.

"No…well kinda, I guess. She's …adopted."

"…And is that blonde woman your wife?"

"Wha? Actually she's-"

"Because its couple's week and couples get in free," she explained before Cliff paused to think about it.

"…Yeah, that's my wife. Mrs. Mirage Fittir."

"Fittir, huh? That will be 600 Fol. Thank you," she said as he quickly gave her the money, "Enjoy your stay."

Cliff slowly walked towards Mirage and Maria with the tickets. There was only one thought in his mind: Mirage was going to kill him. Maria was sitting beside Mirage with a balloon as blue as her hair tied to her wrist and a big smile on her face.

"I got the tickets!" he announced as they stood up. Cliff glanced over at the ticket booth as they headed towards the main gates. Myrcella was watching them as she pulled out a headset and put it on. He thought that she was calling security because he and Mirage weren't acting like a couple, so he hesitantly placed an arm around Mirage and pulled her closer. Mirage only glanced up at him with a quirked eyebrow, but didn't say anything as the gatekeeper took the tickets and marked them before handing them back to Cliff.

Once they were past gate and away from the humanoid girl's sight, he sighed in relief, but didn't remove his arm from around Mirage. Maria ran a little ways ahead to take in the colorful sights, but was not out of ear range of her two guardians.

Mirage's cheeks were a light shade of pink, but she couldn't shake the feeling that Cliff did something wrong. As they followed the young Earthling, she sighed before she hesitantly asked, "How much were the tickets?"

"Oh, about 600 Fol," he replied as he made sure not to look at her.

"Really? That's awfully cheap considering the circumstance they're in," she continued as she shot him a rather accusing stare.

"Well…yeah," he admitted before he glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes.

"I seem to recall Marietta telling me that that was the price for children's tickets."

"…It is." Mirage stopped and pulled away from him as she crossed her arms. When she realized that they were not following her anymore, Maria ran back to them to see what was wrong.

"What did you do?" Mirage asked in a quiet tone. Cliff shrugged and then rubbed the back of his neck.

"I…told them that we were married so we could get free tickets."

"You said _**WHAT**?_" she shouted in an uncharacteristic manner as her eyes widened and then backed away from him with a red face. He chuckled nervously as his face began to redden in embarrassment.

"You two are married?" Maria inquired in surprise before Mirage shook her head.

"No, Maria. Cliff just told a big fat lie," she explained as she glared at him. Maria gasped before she started to glare at him as well.

"My parents used to tell me that lying was bad!"

"And your parents were absolutely right. Don't worry, I have a hunch that there is a horrible punishment waiting for me when we get back to the Diplo," he said as he eyed Mirage wearily, "But since we're here, we might as well enjoy ourselves."

"I suppose," Mirage sighed while she grabbed his arm and placed it back around her, "And I guess we should keep up the act."

"I knew you couldn't stay mad at me forever, honey," Cliff teased, earning an eye roll from her.

"So what should we do first?" she asked, ignoring his comment. Three women in short skirts suddenly walked by them before anyone could answer. Cliff watched them pass by and with a smirk, alerting Mirage that he was about to say something lecherous.

"We could-" he was cut off as Mirage stepped on his foot.

"Careful, _dear_, you might set a bad example for Maria," she smiled coldly.

"Right, right…" he replied as he tore his gaze away from the women.

"Oh, I know! Let's go on a ride!" Maria exclaimed as she pushed in between them and grabbed their hands. She pulled them along with her as she searched for any ride that seemed fast and exciting. This time Maria wasn't running ahead so they didn't have to bend to her level. They really looked like a family just then, as Mirage let out a small smile while Maria glanced back at both of them with a grin of her own. Cliff suddenly stopped them when he found a ride that seemed interesting.

"Hey Mirage, look! It's the Tunnel of Love," he started before the smile faded on her face.

"Don't push your luck, Cliff."

"Yes ma'am."

After a few rides on some roller coasters they played games and won a few prizes. Cliff got Maria a big stuffed bear and won a silver necklace for Mirage as an apology for the mess he pulled her into. She accepted the gift, but warned him that it wouldn't make his punishment any less painful. When they returned to the Diplo, Marietta and the rest of the crew kept grinning or chuckling at Cliff and Mirage when they were together. It turned out that Marietta and Myrcella were friends and Myrcella had called Marietta to tell her that she had the pleasure of meeting her captain and his wife that day. Myrcella was soon corrected on her information, but didn't bother to force Cliff to pay the full price of the tickets, seeing as how she caused enough embarrassment for him with his crew. From that day on, everyone teased Cliff about his 'wife' every once in a while.

(One year later)

"Cliff?" a thirteen year old Maria approached his seat.

"What is it?"

"I…have a little problem…" she said meekly with a light blush. Cliff knew she only blushed when she had problem she didn't understand.

"A problem? Well come sit in your ol' buddy Cliff's lap and tell me your problem," he replied before she climbed up to sit on his knee.

Her blush deepened as she stared at her feet, "My stomach has been hurting lately…"

"Have you been eating properly?" he guessed before she nodded her head, "Has Mirage been training you too hard again?"

"…No more than usual," she answered. Mirage had been teaching her how to fight recently and sometimes she'd forget that Maria wasn't a Klausian.

"Have you hurt yourself?"

"No, but I have been bleeding," she said before Cliff started to figure it out.

"Where?"

"Down…there."

"Down where?" he asked again before her whole face was red.

"…Where I have to pee," she whispered. He blinked as it all came together. He slowly picked her up and set her on the ground before he stood up and gently ruffled her hair.

"Oh, is that all?" he replied cheerfully, "There is nothing wrong with you! Your just, …uh …**MIRAGE!**"

Mirage was repairing a computer terminal just outside of the bridge when he screamed her name. She was trying to repair it from the inside and ended up bumping her head on the frame in shock. She backed away from the hole she had created to rub her sore spot before running towards the bridge. From the way Cliff yelled, she was expecting the Apocalypse when the door hissed open, but all she found was a slightly panicked Cliff and a worried and confused Maria on the verge of tears.

"What?" she finally inquired when no one spoke up. Cliff slowly guided Maria over to her.

"Maria is starting that thing you females get every month," he explained, earning a blink from her.

"…That's all?" Mirage then kneeled down to Maria's level and brushed the bangs away from her forehead, "Are you in pain?"

Maria nodded slightly before Mirage took her hand and led her out of the bridge. Mirage had been meaning to tell Maria about the pains of growing up, but had lost track of the time. And since it was apparent that her mother never told her about the monthly cycles women go though, it was no wonder why Maria was so lost and confused. Cliff let out a sigh of relief as he walked back to his seat, but when he got there, he noticed Steeg and Marietta snickering at him.

"What's so funny?" he wondered as he sat down.

"That was really smooth, captain," Steeg joked.

"What would _you_ have done if you were my position?" Cliff scowled, earning a shrug from him.

"I don't know, but I wouldn't have screamed for my wife like that!" he replied before he and Marietta succumbed to laughter.

"She's not my wife!"

(Two years later)

A lot had happened over the course of two years. Maria had grown into a young lady, meaning she had grown stronger, taller, and had developed a figure. She and Mirage began spending more time with each other, mostly out shopping for new clothes that suited her growing needs. There was even a point when Cliff and Mirage almost had to give her up.

Maria had been doing research and found the identities and whereabouts of her real parents. Cliff immediately ordered Mirage to get the Eagle up and running and took them to the coordinates Maria found. When they got there, Maria asked for them to wait for her as she went in alone. When she didn't come back by the end of the day, they were both worried that she wasn't ever coming back. They had grown so attached to Maria, that they feared her decision to stay with her parents. After waiting for two days, she came back with a serene look on her face and asked to go home to the Diplo. It was a week later when Cliff and Mirage discovered that her parents were long since deceased, but her grandparents were still alive. They, of course, had asked her to stay with them, but she had politely declined.

Maria's research didn't end there as she continued to delve deeper into every information database she could find. She soon was able to answer her own questions rather than asking Cliff or Mirage for the answer. Which Cliff was fine with, after all, she was getting a little too old to sit in his lap anymore. Unfortunately, the computer can not answer all questions as the fifteen year old Maria soon found out. She stopped typing and glanced around the bridge. Cliff was looking over Mirage's shoulder as she worked on a project while drinking a mug of coffee. Steeg and Marietta were talking quietly amongst themselves, almost as if they were in their own world.

"Cliff?" she started in an almost too quiet tone.

"Hm?" He slightly turned to face her. A small blush appeared on her cheeks, bringing a familiar sense of deja-vu to him.

"How do know if you're in love?" He nearly choked on his coffee as Mirage glanced up from her work to face Maria.

"Why do you ask?" she inquired as Maria looked away.

"There's someone on the ship who acts strangely around me and Lancar told me that this guy was in love with me…"

"So you want to know if you're in love with him too?" Cliff surmised, earning a nod from her, "Well…love is…"

He paused to look at Mirage, silently asking for any help. All he received was a shrug, "You know you're in love when you always want to be with that person…and uh…"

He couldn't finish or even think about what he was going to say next, but what he did say was enough to bring a relieved sigh to Maria. Mirage glanced at her quizzically.

"So…who is in love with you?"

"Lieber." Steeg stopped talking at the mention of his brother's name for a brief moment before continuing his conversation with Marietta. Cliff let out a short laugh.

"I don't know if it's my place to say this, but I'm pretty sure you are not in love with him," he offered.

"Thank heavens…" she sighed. She waited a few minutes before she faced Cliff again, "So…who said 'I love you' first? You or Mirage?"

Steeg and Marietta stopped talking on a dime as Mirage completely swerved around in her seat to face her with a light blush on her face.

"W-what!" Cliff stuttered, "We're not-"

"Oh," Maria suddenly looked downcast, "It's just that you two had always been together so I thought…"

"We are only friends who share a strong bond," Mirage explained, hoping that she would understand. Maria nodded and let the subject drop, but Cliff and Mirage suffered weeks of awkward tension between each other after that.

(One year later)

The crew of the Diplo witnessed a miracle as Maria's strange powers saved everyone from the Invisible. Cliff had a hunch that her powers were related to the research she had been doing on the Federation database, but didn't care as she had saved everyone's butts. It wasn't long before the members of Quark pressured her into becoming the leader, leaving Cliff to willingly step down for her. Maria had certainly come a long way from that small child they had rescued from an escape pod. He and Mirage sat side by side in the conference room reflecting on the past four years.

"Well you were right, Mirage. Raising kids weren't as easy as I had thought it would be," he sighed as he rested his elbows on the tabletop.

"Yes, but we still managed to help Maria when she needed us. Look at how she turned out, she became a capable adult and now she's the leader of Quark," Mirage smiled softly.

"Yeah…it's good to know the organization is in good hands. I can rest easy knowing that."

"Why are you talking like you're quitting the organization?"

"I'm not quitting. It's just that I wouldn't want to step down for a corrupted, greedy, little brat, you know?" he explained before he leaned back in his chair, "Besides, she still needs our guidance every once in a while so leaving now is not an option."

"I don't know what we can possibly do for her, she can handle everything on her own now. But, it's not like we have anywhere to go…" she said as she glanced at him.

"Yeah, but on a lighter note," he began as he stretched his arms over his head, "We'll at least know what and what not to do when we have children of our own."

One of Cliff's hands landed on top of hers before he realized what he said, "Er-I meant…"

She chuckled as he blushed lightly, "Cliff? Shut up and kiss me."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Maria walked down the halls of the Diplo, hoping to find a place to be alone so she could think. Usually the conference room was empty around this time of day. In fact it was always empty because they never held any meetings to begin with. She was in for the shock of her life when the door opened, though. She found her two guardians committing acts that were unusual for people who were just 'friends'. Mirage was sitting on the table with her legs wrapped around Cliff's waist and her hands tangled in his hair as Cliff kissed her passionately. One of his hands supported him above her while the other was traveling under her shirt.

Maria only blinked as she stared on with an emotionless face. Cliff had taught her well on what to do when she came across awkward situations. She slowly backed out of the room until the door closed and then typed in a code on the nearby keypad to lock all of the doors in the conference room. Deciding that her room was a much better place to think, she started to head down there when Marietta suddenly appeared.

"Hi captain! Have you seen Cliff or Mirage anywhere?"

"Oh, they're both practicing the birds and the bees," she answered casually without thinking.

"_What_?"

"I mean…they're practicing the speech they're going to give me. They've been meaning to give me 'the talk' for some time," she recovered.

"But," Marietta tilted her head in confusion, "I thought you knew everything you needed to know about that when you accidentally hacked into that explicit site on the computer."

"They wanted to make sure I understood it."

Marietta accepted her story and headed back to the bridge while muttering something about Cliff and Mirage acting like they really were Maria's parents. Maria had a grin on her face as she glanced behind at the conference room before making her way to the living quarters. Something told her that the 'wife' joke wasn't going to work on Cliff anymore.

The End


End file.
